In current wireless networks, such as long term evolution (LTE) networks, a customer operating a wireless mobile device may receive service from a wireless network for which the customer is then billed, or for which the customer has paid in advance (e.g., prepaid service). While the customer is operating the wireless mobile device, the service the customer receives may be adversely affected by network conditions such as outages and heavy congestion. Despite this, in the current state of the art, the customer is typically billed for the service, either at a later time or against a prepaid account, at the same rate at which the customer would be billed even if there was no service degradation. This may lead the customer to be dissatisfied with the service, which may in turn lead to cancellation of service, an increase in the churn rate for the wireless network provider, and an increase in poor reviews and word-of-mouth for the provider.
In many wireless networks, a customer may be charged on a per-flow basis, often based on Internet Protocol (IP) flows of data between a customer's wireless mobile device and a wireless network. Identifiers may be used by the wireless network provider to identify each flow and then charge for the flow. Here again, in the current state of the art, each flow is typically charged at the same rate regardless of the quality of service provided for the respective flow. This may not accurately represent the value of the service received by the customer because each flow may be affected differently by network conditions and equipment due to, for example, outages and heavy congestion. Thus, one flow may provide faster communications between the customer's wireless mobile device while another flow may provide slower communications, but both flows would be billed to the customer at the same rate. This also may lead to customer dissatisfaction, cancellation of service, increased churn rate, and a lowering of the reputation of the provider.